The Future is Nigh (TWD Fanfiction)

01- In the beginning... [Carl's P.O.V]

'I once had a crush on this young girl. Years ago, only months into the apocalypse. Her mother was Carol, the lady you once new as A-'

'Aunt Carol?' Judith says, speaking over me. I give her a glare, she doesn't look scared, not of me, no... but disappointed in herself. Carol died around three years ago. I remember Judith crying, Carol was more of a mother to her. The only one she ever knew of. She never knew Mum, Lori. I miss her, I sometimes like to tell her stories about Mum and how we lived in the beginning, before the apocalypse.

'Her name, Sophie Peletier. She had short brown hair, a bob, just like yours used to be!' I chuckle and tickle her under the arms. Judith giggles but that is even muffled. She knows to keep her voice down now, something I wish she would never have to worry about.

'My hairs not brown!' she squeals, her voice barely a whisper. Her hair is no where near a bob either. Judith's hair reaches down to her waist. It is not that we don't have scissors(or a knife) she just doesn't want it cut. Which can be a problem, because her hair could get trapped one day...

'Okay, okay. Her hair was brown- not like yours.' I add, I smile also when I see she has a goofy grin plastered to her face. She has a tooth missing in her front row, causing a lisp when she talks. I never told her about a tooth fairy... she would never know of that life... what I like to call, "The Life Before".

'I remember the shirt she wore...' I chuckle at how weird that must sound, but Judith does not notice. She must be glad to just have a story, a memory to latch onto and believe to be her own. 'A blue shirt, sort of a neon blue.' Judith doesn't ask what neon means, she just continues to listen. 'A rainbow was plastered in the middle. Right there!' I poke her in the middle of the chest and Judith giggles lightly, her mouth opened wide as it turns into a yawn. 'The colours of the rainbow weren't in the right order.' I add, an odd thing to remember.

'We were on the road, on our way to... freedom... When the walkers came and we hid, Sophie ran. Our Dad went looking for her, she was missing for a long time. At least it felt like a long time.'

Judith curls into me, wrapping her arms around my waist as we sit beside the fire, leaning against the car we found only a mile back. It is a little rusty and worn but it still works -barely- and there is only a litre of petrol left but I do not tell her that.

The fire that warms my toes inside my shoes crackles, the flames spit out, shining... glistening in the night. We have a full set of stars above us, one of the only nights I allow us to sleep outside. When she falls asleep I will make sure to put her back in the car, I would not let the both of us sleep out in the open -if I have the choice-. I don't want to make that same mistake again.

'She is the most prettiest girl I have ever seen-'

'Other than me!' Judith blurts, I can't help but chuckle.

'Oh you know you are gorgeous!' I inform, poking her button nose. As I do she scrunches up her face. 'You don't need me to tell you that, do you?' I ask and Judith frowns slightly. She shakes her head, I lift her chin and make her eyes meet mine, 'Well you are.' I ruffle her hair and continue the story. A true story.

'We all looked for her. She was missing for ages- at least if felt like that... and after praying, every night time before bed, every morning before searching... we found her.'

Judith presses down on my stomach from where I am lying and I wince. This is one of the stories I had never told her before. There are many stories I have not told her of... a lot of them are the ones I hope she never has to find out about. Mums death... The attack on the prison or when we found Terminus... All the other deaths she cannot remember.

For a seven year old little girl she is mighty strong. Her eyes are now wide, light blue and intriguing. 

'And?'

The images come back, all at once. Sophie's shirt was dirty by then, all the filth collecting up and the flies eating at her flesh. Her skin was flaky, the skin not the same texture, it was a bruised colour, sore looking. I wonder is she was in pain... I had asked myself this many times before.

She had that doll, buried by her side in her grave at the farm.

'And?...' Judith repeats.

I blink and stare back down at her... she doesn't have to know the real story. The fact we found her in the barn, the barn on the same farm we had been sleeping at every night. They were feeding her, she was an animal to them... a pet. 

Hershel, Maggie and the rest of their family weren't bad people, I know that. I just wish...

'And she was never the same young girl I had liked before.'